> in the 80s, 90s and 00s everything about our society became more and more regulated and safety conscious (hotels, taxis, health care, education) meaning costs

> in the 80s, 90s and 00s everything about our society became more and more regulated and safety conscious (hotels, taxis, health care, education) meaning costs skyrocketed, and the cost of entry to compete in those markets became astronomical. Speaking generally, I think it's safe to say that this is the opposite of what happened. The hallmarks of Reagan's [1] and Thatcher's economic policies in the 1980s was massive deregulation (and privatisation). By the end of the decade it became the global norm for economic policy, a consensus generally accepted by even their left-wing successors, Clinton and Blair, by many others around the world, and became a key part of the "Washington Consensus",[2] which was a set of economic policies forced on poor countries who needed aid by Western governments and agencies (and accused often of coldly sacrificing the welfare of hundreds of millions of very poor people). As a more recent example, excessive deregulation of the financial industry, such as the repeal of Glass-Steagall act [3], is widely blamed as a signicant cause of the financial crisis of 2008. I'll add an interesting point: The period of perhaps greatest economic growth in the West, the 1950s and 60s, was the period of greatest government regulation and direct involvement in economies. Deregulation began in the 1980s and while economies have grown since then, wages for most Americans have been flat for 30 years. That proves nothing, but it suggests the evidence for the libertarian theory isn't so clear cut. (Personally I think regulation is not an ideology but a tool, good for some things and not for others.) [1] It actually began under Jimmy Carter, a little known fact. [2] http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidtrade/issues/washington.html http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidtrade/issues/washington.html [3] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/weill/demise.html http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/wei...